Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple in color, the 2011 Te Muna Road Vineyard Pinot Noir has a pretty cherry, red berry and lavender nose scented by some underbrush and toast. Medium-bodied the good core of fruit is framed with crisp acid and low to medium levels of very finely grained tannins before finishing long.
Rating: 92+ -
James Suckling
Very pretty strawberry and hints of spice on the nose. Full body, with medium tannins and a reserved finish. Linear through the palate. Shows tension. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.